Jeff Francoeur and Jose Reyes both hit home runs and Jonathon Niese outdueled Adam Wainwright to lead the New York Mets to an 8-2 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday in the opener of a three-game set.

Francoeur belted a three-run shot to left-center field in the fourth to give the Mets a 4-1 lead.

New York added two runs in the fifth and Reyes added a two-run home run in the sixth to extend the lead to 8-1.

While the Mets offense was waking up, Niese was rolling along. Niese (7-4) allowed just one run and seven hits in six innings. He walked two and had one strikeout while throwing 68 of his 105 pitches for strikes.

Wainwright did not have the same success as he lost for the first time since June 24th at Toronto. The Mets got to Wainwright (14-6) for six runs and six hits in five innings. Wainwright allowed three walks and struck out six.

St. Louis took a 1-0 lead in the first on an RBI single by Ryan Ludwick, but did not score again until the eighth when they loaded the bases with no outs but scored just one run when Randy Winn grounded into a double play.